I Fought the Law...

Thinking on the law yesterday and I came to a few conclusions.
We're not big fans of law.

Law is stuffy. Formal. It has all kinds of negativity tied to it. We think of law and we think of do's and don'ts, things I am and am not allowed to do. We think of the people who execute the law and in some ways think that anyone who carries out the law is obviously geared toward our unhappiness and lack of enjoyment in life.

This is how we get wrongheaded about God and His love - the reason some people don't think God is loving is not so much because of His own character but because of His association with a "law."

Then we read Psalm 19 and we get completely scrambled.

There are three very distinct parts to Psalm 19:

Part 1: Creation Screams Out the Glory of God (19:1-6)
Part 2: The Law Is God's Best Gift to People (19:6-13)
Part 3: I Am Changed by All of It (19:12-14)

The writer of the Psalm, David, spends the first 6 verses talking about how creation shouts out the glory of God. This is where we're usually okay - this is where the common worship tunes of our churches find their material. Right in the middle though, David goes into the goodness and power of the law to transform us. Let's not forget that this is a Law David has and will break (see 2 Sam. 11), but in this song David focuses on how the law is good for us, and God knows it. Beautiful. Righteous. Tasty.

His closing statements are key - the beauty of creation and the goodness of God's commands and desires should take us somewhere. It takes us to a place of meditation. A place where we do focused-thinking on who God is and what direction He would have us go. Contrition for how we've struggled, forgiveness for where we've failed, and desire to let our heart and mind show God our love for Him.

For David, the law is at the middle of the beauty of God and our hearts and minds being changed. Through Jesus, it is now the law of love as He lived it out that is in the middle. Everything else stays the same.